No Sleep for the Wicked
by The Retro Future
Summary: When Lucy needs to sleep the Master is left alone with his thoughts.  Hints at Doctor/Master


Lucy Saxon draped one hand over her husband's chest and gave a sigh before nuzzling into his neck. The Master let dark brown eyes shift to the side to watch her settle into him. One arm was brought around her and fingers lightly tapped against her bare shoulder in that incessant pattern of four beats. He gave a sigh and leaned his head back into his pillow.

Many a night he spent like this, laying on his back, wide awake as ever while his wife slept, curled against him as if he was the only source of comfort and protection she had ever had. It was somewhat a hindrance to him seeing as Time Lords needed a lot less sleep then a Human may have been a cruel man but somewhere he cared for Lucy. Almost like a favorite toy that you keep breaking and repairing, or a pet that had long learned to withstand abuse from it's owner and think of it as affection. So, for hours on end he was confined to the bed, and as a consequence his only company was his mind.

Eyes flickered across the dark ceiling of their room as he waited silently. It was a matter of time before his thoughts would drift. Quite often he thought of the Academy and what life had been like on Gallifrey. It was so simple then, after all his biggest worry was trying to get The Doctor to do his homework and if the Library had gotten any new books, not that he would ever finish them all.

Ticking backwards through the years he was brought to the memory when he was first shown the untempered schism. The very moment he first noticed those drums in his head which fed directly off his double heartbeat. The exact instant he knew he would be forever marked different from the other Time Lords. The imperative point at which he went mad. The distinct second he felt his sanity start to come loose and start fraying at the edges. There was nothing he could even do about it other then try to ignore the inevitable.

For a child it was a terrifying thing to come to that realization, and even more disturbing to watch your own mind fall out of repair as you age. It still scared him, to this day. How far could they go before he was consumed and destroyed by his own mind? He was a walking time bomb and he knew it.

What happened after he died? He'd spent centuries dealing with them and trying to manage to compromise with the Drums, which had turned out to be a frivolous effort. What happened if even in death he never got that peace? Did he even want that? After all, it was hard to give up something you've known practically your whole life, even if it was bad or harmful, it was a sort of comfort in things not deviating from the way they had always been.

Lucy shifted against him and drew his mind back to reality; he hugged her a little closer to him for a moment and shushed her. She easily relaxed against him and fell back into a deeper sleep. It was rather easy to pacify her with his mere presence. Then again, he had set things up to be that way. Setting the fractures needed in her mind to make the woman totally dependent on him.

All it took was a little charm on his end to get her to drop her guard and then with his superior mental capabilities she was his within a matter of days. Little to no challenge in it for him, but she was necessary for his public image. That, and the poor girl had been a nobody before him and the way he looked at it, broken she may be, he did a favor for her. Brought her into public light and the most talked about woman in England once he made Prime Minister.

It was funny how easily this world would crumble for him. Of course he had to account for The Doctor being here. His eyes narrowed lightly at the thought of the other Time Lord. They had spent so much time fighting each other, but what for? Far as he could remember it was meaningless arguments of the tiniest details in their past. Well, perhaps not the tiniest but he was almost certain that's what The Doctor thought of them. However, The Master had had his hearts broken so many times over the other man and he continued to take him back. Every. Single. Time.

He was more then willing to forgive The Doctor and continue in a state of passive truce that would last for a few years until he was forgotten again and he had to do something to get noticed. If he didn't, The Doctor may very well run away from the memories just like he did after he destroyed Gallifrey and where would that leave him? Dusty particles of memory floating out in space. When his name was mentioned then The Doctor could shove it off. "Oh The Master? I knew someone by that name." And be done with it.

No he would not stand for that. He had to make sure he was never forgotten. Not for all the time and effort he put into their relationship. All he wanted was what they once had. He'd never say it out loud but he needed The Doctor. He needed the man to stop him.

Most of the time his half hatched plans were just an outcry to get The Doctor to remember him or pay attention to him. Oh it was childish, he knew that, but it got results. Not to mention it seemed to calm the Drums among other things. It was like killing two birds with one stone, and despite the innocents that may be unfortunate to get caught in the storm, it was worth it to him. Their lives were nothing but momentary blurs as far as the life of a Time Lord was concerned.

He had to wonder though; did The Doctor even realize how much The Master needed him? Probably not. No, the man was too busy bouncing around time and space being the perfect super hero that The Master could never hope to be. Never the one that would be looked up to, or asked for perfection. He was doomed to be the villain for all of time and walk in the shadow of a Lonely God. He had accepted his place but it seemed The Doctor could never accept him.

"Harry?"

He was pulled from his thoughts by the rather concerned tone that barely whispered his alias. His head turned down and get himself caught in his wife's blue eyes, which studied him with disquiet. Her hand was settled between his hearts and he noticed how fast they had been racing and how tight he had ended up gripping onto her shoulder.

The Master frowned lightly and he released her shoulder with a short muttering of an apology. He slid out of bed to leave her be. Lucy had half sat up but he waved a hand at her to stay in as he left the room. He ended up pacing the house for a while and came to rest in an armchair. Hands wrung together before he simply started playing with the ring on his right hand.

Eyes were focused outside the window, lips pressed to a firm line and he made sure his breathing remained calm. Fingers began to tap against his ring again, same pattern as they always did and his eyes narrowed.

This was just the beginning of another cycle. Another outcry and he'd leave room for himself to be caught and stopped. It was how things worked. It was like how day followed to destroy the darkness of night. It was how things were meant to be. So he'd set up his plan and would wait for The Doctor to catch up with him again.

"Come find me Doctor. Come and destroy me again."


End file.
